Morality Discourse in the Marketplace: narratives in the Chinese television news magazine Oriental Horizon

Abstract

This article explores the narratives of China Central Television's Oriental Horizon-a television news magazine show on Chinese television with high audience ratings-through the roles of reporters and their various relationships with the characters in the stories. Using content analysis and interviews, the article examines how Chinese journalists position themselves between the state and the audience in a changing social environment. The author categorizes the patterns of narratives in the programs through three distinctive roles assumed by the reporters: the advocate of state objectives, the voice of the victim and that of social commentator. It seems that by adopting a watchdog role and assuming clear standards of right and wrong, television reporters manage-at least to a certain extent-to provide the audience with a mechanism of accountability in an age of disillusion and ideological crisis in China. By presenting issues as local cases and de ning them as moral choices, the programs avoid a critical interrogation of the overall social structure.